


shared day, shared destiny

by orphan_account



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Birthdays, F/M, Force Dyad, Friends to more, Jedi Padawan Rey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:33:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26160436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Rey reflects on her first celebrated birthday while waiting on a ride to her future. Her destiny.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 14
Kudos: 28





	shared day, shared destiny

**Author's Note:**

  * For [msmerlin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/msmerlin/gifts).



> Happy birthday, msmerlin!!!! I hope you enjoy this little bit of Reylo fluff!

* * *

The sun is setting on the tree studded horizon, bathing everything the light touches in hues brilliant orange, red, and gold. Like the colorful wrapping of a present for Rey.

And only for Rey.

A loving smile rests in the corners of her lips. Today is the day chosen to celebrate as her birthday, and she’s never been happier. It’s her birthday and she’s outside, alone, waiting on her present. Alone, but not forgotten.

Never forgotten. Not since the day Ben and Luke round her on Jakku.

* * *

Rey was never much for birthdays before the academy. Didn’t know what they were until being thrust into the midst of a celebration for Tai one morning her first month at Master Skywalker’s Jedi Academy.

Why total scratch marks in metal into weeks?

Months.

Years.

Why compound her pain and sorrow that way? Why add to the burden of abandonment?

Then she learned cake was involved with birthdays. Cake and presents. And messages from “back home.” Tai always seemed more interested in the holomessages and presents, but Rey immediately fell in love with the cake part.

It didn’t occur to her to know the date of her own birth until Ben asked for it later that night. After a full day of mediation, drills, chores, and a game of Capture the Flag, Rey had been glowing and feeling so happy it could have split her in two.

“When’s your birthday, Rey?” Ben asked.

Four words. To form a question. An inquiry. A promise of future a celebration in her honor even— maybe . She wilted before she could let herself think that far in advance.

Not that she’d let Ben see such weakness.

“None of your business, Solo,” she snapped, marching off with all the huff and dignity a nine-year-old could summon.

Her age.

That’s all she’d ever been able to keep track of on Jakku. Another harvest season would come and go, which always meant abandoned farmer campsites just outside of Niima outpost would be ripe for scavenging.

She knew her age because she remembers someone saying it aloud in demanding more. More credits in exchange for  her . And afterwards... she knew there had been five harvest seasons before Luke and Ben found her. She knew because each year there had been something left that would never provide her with portions, but she could never convince herself to mind too much.

One year it had been a doll—simple and not very well made. But it was something to to talk to. Something she could pretend to be  someone . Anyone. But her parents most of all. Another year was a bundle of dried up flowers. Another was a small canister she could use as an extra for water. Then an extra blanket. Then some rope.

She’s brought all of these with her when she left miserable Jakku with Ben and Luke.

She’d been tired of waiting. Tired for longing for something she could never put words to. Well, more words than a simple, “I’m waiting for my family.” Everyone knew they weren’t coming back. It wasn’t until telling Ben and seeing the sorrow in his deep brown eyes that she finally knew the truth, too.

So she left, too.

It had felt like the right decision then.

Until Tai’s birthday.

Until discovering she’d never belong. Never fit in. Never be like the rest of them.

Days bled into each other and birthdays came and went. Rey always smiled and said something nice and savored her slice of cake. She never thought to give a gift until something occurred to her.

“When’s Ben’s birthday?”

“Soon,” Master Skywalker answered, not looking up from the book opened on his desk. (A  real book, by the way. One that would bring no portions if bartered to Unkar Plutt, but Rey knew enough by now to know it’d be worth a fortune to an antiques dealer on Coruscant.) “Next week actually. On the anniversary of the day the Empire surrendered to the New Republic.”

Ah. One of  those dates.

One that Master Skywalker and Lor San Tekka spike of with great reverence and Ben always squirmed over, but Rey knew and cared little for. Such a date meant little to her. It’d had no impact on her life on Jakku, and meant little to her still. (San Tekka liked to stress the importance of history and dates, “lest we repeat our failures,” and while Rey could grasp an abstract concept like that, know the exact dates of things over the event itself always seemed a waste of data space to her.)

But this date coincided with Ben’s birthday. The first one when she knew him.

She would make it a special one.

She worked all week on his present, staying up late into the night working on a new utility belt for him. One specifically crafted for all he seemed to want to carry with him. One that could conceal more that reveal.

Because he taught her it was best to let people underestimate and be surprised. Let  them be caught off guard to give you the advantage. She hadn’t worked the nerve yet to ask him who taught him that lesson. And why.

She’d been so eager and excited to give her gift, it was almost disappointing when everyone shouted, “ Surprise !” and, “ Happy Birthday, Rey! ” on the day that should have been Ben’s. That should have been marked only by her delight in giving Ben, her best friend, something from her. Something she scavenged and made with her own two hands. 

She’d never known such pleasure before, and it was taken before she could fully experience it. Her smile was too big the whole day. Words too happy and fake. Everything a mask to conceal her disappointment over not celebrating Ben.

Ben .

He found her sulking just before dinner. Sulking and hiding. 

“Whatcha doing here, kid?” His head tilted as he studied her with that curious expression. That one that said he didn’t understand yet, but he wanted to. “Figured you’d be first at the table for your cake.”

“It’s not my cake, though. Is it?” She’d never meant such a question as an accusation before.

Ben blinked his full brown eyes once. Twice. “I don’t know what you—”

“It’s  your birthday, Ben! Not  mine !” She couldn’t hold back anymore. Couldn’t lie to him. She can never lie to Ben. “I know you and Luke are trying to make me feel at home and all included, but I worked so hard on your present— yours . I’ve never given a present to anyone before. Ever. I don’t remember having anyone to want to give something to, and I haven’t felt close enough to anyone here yet to  want to gift them anything. Just you! And now I can’t even give you  yours because you feel sorry for me!”

Her words tasted like how she imagined poison would be. Like all things dark and bitter. 

Until Ben’s face cracked in a smile.

One of those rare real ones. One that cracked all the way up his face and touched his eyes. One that showed dimples in his cheeks.

( Dimples . She hadn’t known what a dimple was until meeting Ben’s mom and she’d shown Rey holos of chubby, toddler Ben and Leia pointed out the twin indentations in his cheeks as little Ben laughed and smiled. It made Rey feel all warm and happy on the inside to give a name to such a special sight.)

“It’s been a year since we found you, Rey,” Ben said next, and Rey’s heart jumped to her throat. “A year on the day. I’ve had plenty of birthdays here and in space, but we thought—or that is—I asked Master Skywalker if this year and onward—what if we celebrate your birthday on the day we found you? On the day the Force led us to you.”

Rey’s lungs emptied. No air. She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think beyond...

This.

Everything that Ben just said. What he meant in what he  didn’t say.

“The Force—” She closed her mouth. Shook her head. Opened it again, voice full of shock. Shock and wonder. “The Force chose your birthday to—to lead me to you. To bring you and Master Skywalker to me.” Another time and these would have been questions, but Rey wasn’t asking now. 

Waiting.

She was waiting for confirmation.

Waiting for Ben’s smile to soften into something gentle.

She was not disappointed.

Because Ben never disappointed her.

He nodded and pulled a hand from behind his back, revealing something small and wrapped. A present. For  her . “It was the first time I’d ever felt the Force so strongly. The first time it’d seemed like it was speaking directly to me. I told Master Skywalker where to land. I told him where we should start walking and looking. He never asked if I was sure, just followed me in the sand and sun for hours. Until we found you.” He paused, holding the gift out to to her. “You’re the friend I never knew I’d been missing, kid. I’ve learned more of the Force in a single year of knowing you and training you and training  with you than all the years before. So, if it’s all right with you, I thought we could share this day. Find something to celebrate together.”

All right?

He was crazy, because it was more than all right with Rey. Infinitely more.

Not that she told him that that then. 

Nor did she let on how much it meant to her for many, many years to come.

* * *

It’s her birthday again. Eleven years later and they still celebrate it on the anniversary of her coming to the academy. It’s poetic that she’s leaving today.

Leaving with Ben. And not as a Jedi.

Ben isn’t a Jedi either. The path wasn’t for him, he’d said at the time. It’s hurt hearing such a declaration for the first time. It’d felt like a punch to the gut, like a knife to her chest. Like a betrayal against  her .

It’s taken few years to understand what Ben meant at the time. But she gets it now. And she knows down to her marrow, with every Midi-chlorian residing in her cells, that the life of a Jedi isn’t for her either.

That the Force used Master Skywalker and this place, this academy, to change the course of her destiny.

Or simply make it possible.

Because her destiny lies with Ben.

She smiles as his ship descends to the landing pad of the academy. Beams that he’s kept his promise. He’s come back for her. Come to celebrate one final dual birthday before they leave for good together.

Leave to celebrate their new lives together, wherever the Force leads. Ben with that utility belt she made for him all those years ago, and Rey with the holo star map he’d gifted her that same day.

Both of them full of joy, love, and hope as they chart their own course for the future. 


End file.
